


The numbers don't add up (but stamp your heart on it anyway)

by parkjinyeong



Category: NU'EST, Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Corporate, Attempt at Humor, Fluff and Crack, Hate to Love, Light Angst, M/M, Slow Burn, may or may not be a lot of things, may or may not be other relationships, no guarantees to actually be funny, still figuring out which W1 members to add
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 14:29:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11946210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parkjinyeong/pseuds/parkjinyeong
Summary: All Jonghyun wanted was his double-shot espresso over iceAnd to avoid the mess of developing feelings entirely.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I say this an outlet for my business school frustrations but in reality I'm just making excuses to be trash for 2hyun. Anyway I hope you enjoy :)

Kim Jonghyun would like it for the record that the reason why he, and not his good for nothing assistant, is waiting in this line-up is because he deserves a break, and not because said assistant threatened to get him a strawberry frappe with triple whipped cream if Jonghyun “disturbed his work”. Sometimes Jonghyun wonders who the real boss in the department is.

The café he’s currently standing in seems to be going for the urban sanctuary concept, with its living plant walls and hanging perches. Jonghyun thinks the entire endeavor is wasted on the dead-eyed students and corporate prisoners standing in line with him. _I should have a talk with the owners to spend money on corporate delivery service and not frivolous mason jar lights_ , he thinks drily to himself.

Craning his neck forward while tapping his foot impatiently, because _what is taking so long their only job is to make coffee_ , he notes that there are only two baristas trying to manage both the registers while, go figure, making coffee and apologizing profusely for the long waits. Jonghyun’s gaze trails after one of them, a young man, probably fresh out of college, clad in a white button up that sits tightly on his broad shoulders, soft brown hair coiffed across his forehead and falls lightly over his eyes when he leans over to carefully craft a heart onto the foam of a vanilla latte. It’s probably not normal for someone to done a grey apron as if they’re ready to walk a runway, Jonghyun thinks bitterly to himself.

Just a little bit transfixed by the way the barista glides through his workspace, filling in the spots that his co-worker misses and buttering up the customers until they’ve forgotten their impatience, Jonghyun is a bit alarmed when he finds himself standing in front of the cash register with the said barista peering at him curiously. When Jonghyun makes eye contact, the other man’s smile falters slightly and his eyes widen a fraction. Jonghyun is a bit befuddled, surely there are enough important-looking business people waiting for their coffee that the college freshie in front of him shouldn’t be surprised by another one? Unable to stop himself, he gives the guy a once over, finding to his dismay that the man is built like a greek god. Jonghyun licks his lips nervously as his fingers drum along the counter, a sinking feeling that he immediately labels as dislike builds up in his chest. Guys like this flash a smile and girls swoon and tip double the price of their drink. The boy is probably off the market anyway, with the way his collarbones peek through the unbuttoned top of his button shirt and his ears gradually turn pink under Jonghyun’s wordless scrutiny. An obvious conclusion, get a grip fangirls.

“Um, can I get you something?” the barista’s low, soft voice finally fills the increasingly awkward void between them. _Just order your goddamn double shot espresso over ice,_ he tries to tell himself. Minki would probably laugh if he was here, watching the most competent VP of sales W Incorporated has ever known get unreasonably flustered while ordering coffee.

“An extra-large vanilla latte please”.

While the barista is punching in his order, Jonghyun absent-mindedly hands over a $20 bill while subsequently having a mental breakdown over ordering a _vanilla latte_ when he’s both lactose intolerant and hates sweets. He’s in the middle of weighing the cost-benefit analysis of switching his order to the customary, safe, normalcy of double espresso over ice when he realizes that the barista is talking to him again, his extra-large vanilla latte taunting him from the counter. Not wanting to make a fool of himself asking the guy to repeat what he said, Jonghyun mutters a curt _keep the change_ and forces himself to take slow, calculated steps out of the premise.

Back at the safety of his desk, Jonghyun doesn’t know why he’s holding his breath as he pops off the plastic lid. A plain leaf etched into the foam glares back at him. His head falls to the desk with a dull thud and accompanying groan. Ignoring the unsympathetic eye roll from Minki—he’ll look into finding a new assistant later—he replays the disaster in the coffee shop in startling clarity as the same words loop through his mind.

_What the fuck, Kim Jonghyun_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of Hwang Minhyun and Kang Dongho

“Kang Dongho, you won’t believe the rude customer I got today” Minhyun exclaims as he stalks into the room, hazaphardously dropping his bag on the ground and flopping down on the bed beside his roommate, who, for some unexplainable reason, is on _Minhyun’s_ bed, wrinkling _his_ sheets.

After the encounter with the offensive customer earlier that day, Minhyun had been slightly out of it for the remainder of his shift. He kept messing up the hearts in his vanilla lattes, for one. Jinyoung, who had suffered through the ridiculously busy shift like a champion, had noticed the other barista’s avoidance to sell chocolate scones and with growing concern offered to close shop on his own. Usually not one for leaving halfway through a job, Minhyun was so eager to just go home and forget about stupid rich people and their stupid vests that he muttered a few apologies before flying to the staff room to collect his belongings.

Now that Minhyun is back in the bubble sanctuary of his room, which is in disarray thanks to a roommate who tears their shared apartment like a tornado whenever he’s trying to find something, the niggling frustration has faded significantly as he inhales the welcoming scent of home.

…

“Dongho… did you not shower after the gym again this morning? And you’re on _my_ bed??” Minhyun’s clean-freak tendencies become increasingly hysterical as the lingering scent of stale sweat parades in his airspace.

 Dongho, who had previously planned to spare Minhyun’s story a few grunts in favour of the soccer manga he’s in the middle of, realizes he needs to save the situation.  

“Welcome back man, what were you saying about the rude customer?”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot” That’s a lie; Minhyun has been itching to tell someone about the man who messed with his shift and his mind since he had burst out the door of his workplace. “You won’t believe the nerve of this guy. So he’s in this vest, you know the stripey ones that look like they cost thousands to tailor? Yeah, so as soon as he walks in I get a sense that he feels like he owns the place. I see him at the back of the line and all the way to the front he has this look of distaste planted permanently on his face. And then when I go to serve him, I couldn’t just let Jinyoung take him, the poor baby would get eaten alive, he just stares at me blankly. I ask him for his order fully knowing that he’d get something dark and gloomy like his attitude and then he gets a vanilla latte!”

“The horror” Dongho deadpans, but Minhyun is on a roll.

“So I was thinking about offering him one of our killer chocolate scones on the house but when I ask if he likes sweets, he just tells me to keep the change. It was $14.56 in change! For a vanilla latte! I just abhor people who try to show off their wealth like that??”

At this point Minhyun is panting, having taken a grand total of two breaths throughout his entire rant. Dongho is peering at him with a furrowed brow and Minhyun triumphantly waits for him join in on the insult party.

“So the guy stands in line like every other customer, tips you generously, and you’re angry because you couldn’t give him a free chocolate scone?” Dongho asks, trying to hold back his laughter.

“For the everloving god of cleanliness Dongho, can’t you see how rude he was?”

“He was cute wasn’t he”

Minhyun is on the brink of launching into an even more elaborate lyrical about the nightmare he faced when Dongho’s words reel him in, sputtering like a dying motor engine.

“What.”

“Please Minhyun, my man, solo since birth… You were staring at him the entire time he was in line, tried to offer him sweets on the house when you know there’s a policy against it, and you’re acting like a kicked puppy because he didn’t want to talk to you. Plus I’m absolutely sure you’ve had worse customers and you never threw your precious bag on the germ-infested ground,” here Dongho is mockingly making air quote with his fingers to highlight just how ridiculous he thinks Minhyun sounds when he says the same words.

“I don’t know why you have to bring my relationship status into this” Minhyun grumbles, opting not to dignify the rest of Dongho’s completely illogical reasoning with a response.  

It’s worth mentioning here that Minhyun is not solo since birth on purpose. He just never found the girls who giggle as he walks by, stumble into him (he used to catch them and ask them if they’re ok but now he just tries his best to step to the side), or offer him chocolate and homemade pastries particularly appealing. The right person will show up eventually, he always says optimistically, earning himself a few friendly (read: painful) punches from Dongho for being an ungrateful dick.

“There’s an opening at my company by the way” Minhyun rolls sulkily so that his back is facing Dongho.

“Minhyun-ahhh” Dongho whines disgustingly, “ok fine sorry to call you single since birth. Finest prince of the great land and bearer of the life-saving tonic known as coffee, hair as smooth as snow, heart as hard as rock…”

“Shut up” Minhyun turns around just to shove a palm into Dongho’s face, only to find that he’s stood up with his dirty feet on the bed for dramatic effect. HIS PRISTINE GERM-FREE BED.

Dongho grins and plops back, Minhyun bouncing a little with the dips of the bed on his way down.

“So there’s an opening in my company. It’s a sales manager position”

“You think that the great mighty W Incorporated is going to hire a barista as a sales manager?”

Dongho rolls his eyes.

“You graduated at the top of your class in business management and you have the interpersonal skills. I’d say that you have a good shot.”

“Tell me about the people,” Minhyun prompts, only to appease his enthusiastic friend.

“I don’t know a lot of the sales,” typical of an accounting department stuck-up, “but Jonghyun, that’s who your boss will be, is a riot. He’s a stickler for targets and will act like he doesn’t care about you but if someone coughs a few times in the office he’ll send them home, have medication delivered to them from the pharmacy downstairs and have his assistant call once an hour to make sure they’re still alive. His assistant told me that when his boss stays late, the next morning he’ll find him curled on the couch with an onibugi plushie that magically disappears as soon as they get down to business. So Jonghyun is a complete marshmallow, really.”

Minhyun knows Dongho is trying to paint his boss in the best light possible, but an image of a pot-bellied old man squeezing on the couch with a blue doll makes him fight off a shudder.

“Ok enough about that, don’t think I’ve forgotten that you’re soiling my bedsheets with your dirty existence.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t mind cold businessman McDreamy rolling around dirtying your bedsheets.”

“I’m not doing your laundry for a year,” Minhyun aims a mean kick to Dongho’s thigh, only to screech as it strikes at an awkward angle and a sharp pain shoots through his foot.

“Ok fine fine no need to bring out the big guns, geez. You’re the one who would suffer more from my dirty laundry anyway.” Dongho mutters as he walks off to take a shower.

 

_“Wait, so what about the café?”_

_“You mean the cute customer?”_

_“Will you please let that rest.”_

_“Get your resume to me by tomorrow.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter came really fast but school's starting so I'll try to update when I can  
> Please leave comments & come yell at [twobugis](www.twitter.com/twobugis)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of the appeal of coffee and wide backsides

Jonghyun is reclined in his custom-made Armani leather chair, pen turning circles down the spiral of restlessness for the last hour. He isn’t entirely sure where the feeling that he absolutely needs to be somewhere is coming from, except that it’s an itch that he can’t get rid of even though he’s confirmed with Minki (5 times) that no, he doesn’t have any meetings this morning; the weekly review with underperforming employees is rescheduled for next Monday. Maybe it’s the lingering anxiety of possibly having to fire people that hasn’t ebbed off even after Minki announced the postponement.

“Hey Minki,”

“I swear to god Kim Jonghyun if you ask for the ten thousandth time….”

“It was only 5” he protests petulantly.

Minki has the audacity to go back to typing furiously on his laptop without appearing to have acknowledged Jonghyun speaking at all. Jonghyun has no idea what the assistant does on his devices all day considering his only job is to support Jonghyun. His informal job description is specializing in telling off people who come to his office without an appointment and ensuring Jonghyun doesn’t walk out of the office looking like what he dubs as a fashion monstrosity. It certainly did not require Minki to have his eyes trained on his laptop for the last 5 hours as if he were grinding out the company’s annual performance report.

“I need a coffee,” Jonghyun groans. The thought of it hits the spot of anxiety like a thread through a needle.

Minki dignifies the subtle request to be useful by raising a single perfectly shaped eyebrow. Seeming to ponder over it for a second (probably deciding if he is going to ignore Jonghyun again), he smirks.

“Get it yourself.”

“Okay.”

As he watches his boss whisk out without a moment of further protest, Minki just rolls his eyes and props his feet on top of his desk, laying down his client proposal for Milan fashion week next quarter on his desk. It’s an end-of-year present for Jonghyun once he lands the client. He thinks back to how Jonghyun had attempted to nonchalantly offer him a vanilla latte and instead got an hour-long interrogation by yours truly.

“As if what you really want is the coffee.”

Jonghyun is taking his time with the stroll down to the coffee shop with lightness bolstering his step, the taste of his double espresso over ice sitting like anticipation on his tongue. Needless to say, he’s filed the incidents of early this week in the back recesses of his mind, carefully labelled and stored in a folder called “never touch or think about again”.

When Jonghyun enters the coffee shop with its green wall and mason jar lights, his eyes immediately scan the counter. A female barista with a voice that is way too high pitched when she takes his order tries to make flirtatious conversation, and Jonghyun wants to hightail off of the block for entirely different reasons from last time. It almost feels like a different place, without the heady stare and low baritone of another barista, resurfacing through the traitorous holes in his memory. Dejected by Jonghyun’s disinterest, the girl quickly goes to make Jonghyun’s espresso, muttering under her breath about how businessmen who order dark, soulless drinks are all the same.

Jonghyun is twirling around in his custom-made Armani leather chair absent-mindedly, waiting impatiently for the rush of caffeine that never came. His mood has never gone down after having coffee before, maybe he should try changing his order.

"Hey Minki what do you think about W Inc. expanding to coffee too?"

"Isn't that going too far for a piece of ass?"

"Don't you think it would create great synergies? You know, economies of scale?" Jonghyun pointedly ignores Minki's crude insinuation that he wants anything other than good, quality coffee.  

"Take that jargon to the board of directors and you just might get espresso coffee poured on you."

"You know I can get you fired right" Jonghyun mutters dejectedly.

\--

Jonghyun is bored. He’s spent the last 4 hours interviewing “final candidates” for a new sales manager role. So far all of them have graduated from top universities and speak at least three languages but Jonghyun has no idea how they’ll sell multi-billion dollar software contracts if they can’t even look Jonghyun in the eye when he grills them on their competence. As another candidate rushes out on the verge of tears, dismissed by the VP Sales himself 20 minutes before the allotted time, Jonghyun throws himself back in his chair and sighs ruefully.

Minki peers over at him with an expression of slight concern.

“You don’t have to be that mean to them. It’s not like you.”

“I’m sorry, you’re right. The coffee just isn’t cutting it,” Jonghyun admits.

“We only have one more candidate today. Dongho shuffled him into the pile thinking I wouldn’t notice. The guy would need an astronomical interview to make it. No MBA, no executive sales experience… Maybe you should take a breather while I handle this one?”

Jonghyun scans the resume in an efficient two seconds and grimaces. He likes lunching with Dongho while insulting each other’s teams—they are friends, really— but it seems like the next one will be spent chewing him out about the quality of his references instead.

“Hwang Minhyun huh” he utters, feeling an ominous wave of familiarity that he can’t put his finger on as his eyes dwell on the name. Usually he doesn’t spare resumes more than five seconds, today really isn’t in his element.   

“Don’t send him off in tears. The guy probably doesn’t understand the weight of this job,” Jonghyun cautions before giving Minki a thankful pat on the shoulder.

“You’re one to talk”, Minki calls after him.

As Jonghyun slides out of the boardroom, the wide backside of a well-built man dances in his peripheral vision, but his pace is too brisk to put on the brakes and take a closer look. Jonghyun muses to himself how the rumours would go around if their efficient VP sales is putting a pause to his day to ogle at an interviewee.

Minhyun is standing, or what an observer would describe as pacing in anxious circles, in the waiting area when the door to the boardroom opens. Said imaginary observer would’ve then watched Minhyun almost give himself whiplash turning around, though Minhyun likes to maintain that he was the splitting image of calm and collected when he tells the story afterwards.

“Hwang Minhyun-ssi?”

Minhyun gawks at the person in front of him, his features are delicate and feminine but his voice is definitively male. Mirth dances in his eyes when he picks up Minhyun’s shock, it’s clearly not the first time he’s seen that reaction. If Minhyun didn’t have a type, and he absolutely doesn’t have dark vests and even darker eyes in mind, don’t send him knowing looks, he would probably be enamoured by this man who looks like he walked out of his manga collection.

“I’m Choi Minki, Kim Jonghyun’s assistant. Come on in.” Minhyun doesn’t know at the time that the most deceivingly sweet smile on the assistant’s face is to lure him into the lion’s den for the most hostile grilling session of his life.

\--

Jonghyun’s phone buzzes in his pocket as he stands on the 60th floor staircase, following the minuscule dots of cars below until they round the corner and disappear. He picks up to the habitual sound of Minki yelling about how he should pick up sooner.

“I think we have a winner,” Minki announces after he’s done. To which Jonghyun just gives a doubtful grunt.

“Seriously Jonghyun, I’m telling you he’s a keeper. He’s hot, charismatic and built like a sculpture. Totally your type”.

“I don’t have a type”.

“Please boss, I’ve already decrypted the password to your porn collection”.

“Just because he’s a looker doesn’t mean that he’s going to get contracts Minki” Jonghyun says drily, already attuned to Minki bringing up the topic in hopes of a reaction, earning himself a deafening squawk on the other end of the line.

Grimacing as he holds back the urge to hurl his phone down the stairs to silence Minki’s rage about how he isn’t _shallow_ , ogling the boys in finance doesn’t _count_ , Jonghyun tosses the problem around in his mind. A guy with no decent qualifications and no experience. His thoughts flash unbidden to the hazy memory of wide shoulders, and he tries to chase away the sliver of eagerness when he wonders _what could really go wrong_. Minki’s judgement is almost undeniably more critical than his boss’s, and he’s gotten his own way often, much to Jonghyun’s chagrin, just because he’s always right.

“I grilled him so hard any of the other candidates would’ve broken down and require therapy for emotional trauma, but he didn’t even break a sweat. I’ve never seen patience like his. I played the rudest customer ever, you know how I could’ve gone into acting, and he still managed to convince me to sign.”

Jonghyun would deny vehemently that wide shoulders have completely left his mind at his next words.

“Ok fine. Hwang Minhyun, was it? Give him a 3 month probation period, I have high expectations.”

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of office shenanigans and one more vanilla latte

“Kang Dongho,”

“Hwang Minhyun,”

“Kang Dongho. Be the good best friend that we both know you are not, and tell me that I still have hope.” Minhyun pleads, tacking on a petulant “please” when Dongho barely flinches.

“I am the best friend you could possibly have, and you still have hope,”

“No I dooooon’t,” Minhyun groans, crashing messily onto his bed, “it’s been a day and they haven’t called. Why didn’t I ask them when I’d hear back again? Oh yeah because I knew I wouldn’t make it. The interviewer’s poker face was icy, I had cold sweat running down my neck, and he could probably see right through me. I don’t remember a single question he asked??? Oh my god Dongho I did not graduate Seoul University to retire as a single lonely barista.”

“You wouldn’t be single if you didn’t reject the affections of every organism that moves and gets enamoured by you,” Dongho retorts, exasperated from the blaze of impatience and insecurity before him. He knows from experience that if he tries to tell his friend to shut up, the disturbance will only increase in pitch, volume, and speed and burn him to crisp. People tell him that he’s lucky that Minhyun does all his chores, but none of them know what he really has to deal with.

Minhyun is ready to tell Dongho to be more helpful (again, as Dongho knew he would, he doesn’t know why he keeps wasting his breath), when the nostalgic tune of Xiah Junsu’s Yesterday rings loud from some crevice of Minhyun’s bed, leaving him scrambling blindly for his phone.

Both of them startle when Minhyun catches sight of his phone screen, Minhyun because he sees W Inc. on the call display and Dongho because Minhyun proceeds to scream and flail wildly in panic.

“Pick up the phone before they hang up you idiot” Dongho hisses.

Minhyun, covering his mouth to prevent himself from squeaking, jabs randomly at his phone multiple times before he gets the green button. Dongho thanks every higher being that his roommate didn’t snag the end call button, because there would be no way he’d hear end of that one.

So at this point he expects everything to go dandy. Except then Minhyun tries to say “hello?” with his hand muffled over his mouth and ends up choking on his own breath, turning green with the effort to not cough his lungs out.

He can almost hear the confusion on the other end and decides to take his best friend out of his misery.

Taking the phone away from Minhyun, he responds smoothly, “Hello?”

“Hi, is this Hwang Minhyun?”

“Yes it is.”

Minhyun squawks in protest beside him but Dongho waves him away calmly.

Dongho nods absent-mindedly to the words that the other end is saying while trying to push Minhyun’s insistent head away from crushing his hand when he tries to catch parts of the conversation. Exchanging a few more pleasantries before he hangs up, Minhyun is practically on top on him before he manages to end the call.

“What did they say?” Minhyun asks at the same time Dongho says “You’re reporting for work tomorrow at 8am.”

It takes a good few seconds of processing before Minhyun screams, kneeing Dongho in the chin as he scrambles up and drops down on his knees in a silent prayer. Then, he leaps up and begins pacing in an even more urgent frenzy than before.

“What if they heard your voice and think I’m an impersonator tomorrow? What do I wear? I have no business clothes except for my graduation suit Dongho. I’ve been going to the gym it probably won’t fit right? KANG DONGHO STOP ROLLING YOUR EYES AND HELP ME FIGURE OUT MY LIFE.”

\--

Minhyun finds himself pacing outside of another door the next morning, waiting to meet his new boss. Sitting snuggly on his shoulders is a new suit delivered and fitted by one of Dongho’s “fashion-conscious friends”.  He conjures possible variations of a pot-bellied old man to pass the time, he hopes that his boss is the cheerful and jovial kind and not the ones who tell kids that they’ll get coal for Christmas.

The door _slams_ open and Minki comes strutting out.

“Hwang Minhyun-ssi, wonderful to see you back”, here Minki walks right up into his space and Minhyun tries not to lean backwards when the assistant reaches up to pat his shoulder. Minhyun notices for the first time that the man is significantly shorter than he is, Minki tends to fill up the space he stands in so thoroughly that people have a hard time being able to tell.  

“Jonghyun is ready to see you, come on in.”

This is the moment of truth, the one chance he gets in his life to make a good first impression on the pot-bellied old man who will determine whether or not he’s going to die poor.

With a deep breath Minhyun steps past Minki into the room. The man in front of him dwarfs Minki’s presence and Minhyun feels like the room has narrowed down to just the two of them. A narrow but sturdy build, framed in a familiar vest, collarbones peeking through his tailored dress shirt, a long, pale neck, red full lips drawn into a natural pout, a gentle sloping nose, dark, searching eyes and a fringe Minhyun wants to touch to see if it’s as soft as it looks. Minhyun wonders if he’s being electrocuted when reality hits him that his new boss is not a pot-bellied old man, but the customer from the café who never completely left his mind. 

Minhyun is at loss for words as his new boss ( _Jonghyun_ , his head supplies helpfully) points at him, opening and closing his mouth in shock. At least Minhyun isn’t the only one who’s at least a little bit caught by surprise.  

Minhyun wonders if his jaw has been dislocated at this point because he can’t feel it at all. Maybe he didn’t actually wake up this morning and this is a fever dream?  If it’s a dream, is he allowed to touch the soft fringe that is swept smoothly over his boss’s forehead? He hears a distant chuckle from behind him, which seems to help Jonghyun piece his composure back together.

“Why’re you just standing there, wasting time won’t be tolerated”, Jonghyun clips. Of course he’s too self-important to even introduce himself, Minhyun thinks as he narrows his eyes.

Jonghyun reclines on his expensive looking leather chair like it’s a throne, tipping his head in a half-hearted gesture for Minhyun to sit in front of him. Minhyun feels strongly like his boss doesn’t like wasting words or meeting the eyes of his employees.

As he waits for Jonghyun to start talking, Minhyun takes a look around the room and has to hold back a snort at how characteristically impersonal it is. He thinks back to what Dongho said about his boss and his Pokemon toy, and concludes surely that Dongho has some gap in his memory because there’s no way Kim Jonghyun would hug stuffed animals to sleep. At this point Jonghyun clearly seems to be steadfastly ignoring him, which is quite preposterous in Minhyun’s opinion because he’s not the one who asked to be sitting in this office.

As if sensing that Minhyun is about to make up his mind to say something, Jonghyun’s voice comes out first.

“Go get me a coffee”

Minhyun halts in whatever nonsense was about to leave his mouth to fill up the silence. Did he hear wrongly?

When he clearly isn’t going to get a response, Jonghyun finally looks up to stare at him impassively. Minhyun wonders if he’ll always end up looking like a gaping goldfish in front of his boss.

“Well? That should be what you’re good at, isn’t it?”

Minhyun highly doubts that Jonghyun made the hiring decision at all because he’s clearly seeming to regret it. But Minhyun has heard more than enough times in his career management class that even if your job is mopping floors, you should mop them to the best of your ability. Barely refraining from slamming the door as he walks out, Minhyun wishes he could go back to that class and ask what he should do about bosses who are insensitive pricks. Fingers drumming along the counter in front of the coffee machine, he thinks back to Jonghyun at the café, at how the dark and elegant customer had ordered a vanilla latte and sparked his curiosity. The only good thing that came out of that interaction was that now he knows Jonghyun’s coffee order.

He inspects the premium espresso machine, muttering about pompous people who have too much money to spend on ten thousand dollar industrial models, before moving to foam up milk for a latte. He finds an expensive looking vanilla syrup in the cupboard, and decides against overkilling with latte art. After all, he isn’t a barista anymore. His mood has visibly improved after going through the familiar actions of making coffee, and he walks back to Jonghyun’s office with a spring in his step.

He has a small, proud smile on his face when he sets the mug in front of his boss.

“Your coffee”, he says sweetly, mostly out of habit.

When Jonghyun picks up his cup, still without looking up, Minhyun wonders if he’ll ever get acknowledged voluntarily on this job. If he was lingering around to see a reaction, he certainly did not expect it to be Jonghyun taking a sip, watching his whole body stiffen and face drain of colour. He whips his head to look at Minhyun with a bit of foam stuck on his bottom lip, and Minhyun has to mentally berate himself for the knee-jerk reaction to wipe it off.

Before Minhyun can ask what’s wrong, Jonghyun sets down the cup heavily, recovering from whatever precious shock he had, reaches into a drawer under his desk and pulls out a folder, throwing it across the table and Minhyun has to lunge forward to prevent the folder from sliding off and sending the papers flying.

Unfortunately, Minhyun happens to be highly uncoordinated and ends up sprawling over the table. Groaning at the impact, he looks up and finds himself nose to nose with his boss. Jonghyun doesn’t pull away when they make eye contact. Minhyun, feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed, looks down instead. Except _that’s_ a huge mistake because Minhyun sees the foam that is still stuck on his boss’ lips and imagines another way he could get rid of it. Minhyun is fighting a losing battle with his impulse control when Jonghyun is first to break the tension with a cough. The moment broken, Minhyun feels his ears burning in embarrassment.

“Go input the data in those files” Jonghyun says shortly, a tightness in his voice, and Minhyun knows he’s dismissed. 

\--

Minhyun is stretching his weary shoulders from hours of entering data into spreadsheets. Although the work is tedious, his co-workers are fun and he finds himself settling in well. Meandering through the hallways in search of a washroom, he finds one and walks in, only to have soft conversing voices stop him in his tracks. He sticks his head cautiously around the wall that separates the entrance from the sinks, and sees Jonghyun and Minki standing closer than what would be deemed appropriate in a professional relationship. Minki is fixing Jonghyun’s tie while biting his lips, and he wishes he could see Jonghyun’s reaction to the intimacy. He only catches the tail end of the words his boss protests petulantly “don’t know how to handle him”. It’s strikingly childish and innocent in comparison to the cold, indifferent tone he uses for Minhyun. They look good together, Minhyun thinks bitterly. A sassy, diva personality to keep rich, brooding boyfriend Kim Jonghyun in check.

There’s another alternative, an unwelcome idea that manifests in Minhyun’s mind that this is what the real Kim Jonghyun is like. That he is the one who isn’t enough and doesn’t deserve Jonghyun’s respect. That all of the effort he’s spent reducing his boss to a condescending asshole in his mind simply isn’t the reality and Minhyun feels like his world is teetering precariously on its axis.

Minhyun isn’t sure which explanation is making him feel like he’s swallowed acid, unpleasant thoughts running rampant like rabid dogs chasing their own tails until he’s dizzy and aching as he shuffles out quietly.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of Minhyun's impulses and unwarranted silences

It’s lunch time, if three in the afternoon after processing a lifetime’s worth of data can be considered an acceptable time for lunch. After finding another washroom to stare at himself in the mirror for 10 minutes, searching for the flaw that makes his boss treat him like dirt (he wasn’t sure what he was looking for, or if the answer was right in front of his eyes), his distracted walk back was interrupted by a hard impact that sends him and a young girl flying off of their trajectories. Minhyun’s protective reflexes had activated immediately as he pulled the girl into his chest to prevent her from slamming against the wall. The rapid turn of events left the girl looking a little dazed, Minhyun notices as he pushes her back and finds a flush on her cheeks. Coming back noticeably disheartened, and having to assure his team multiple times that yes he was fine, he threw himself into his work and tried not to let his mind loop between the Jonghyun who lets people approach him and the Jonghyun who feels miles away when he’s standing in front of Minhyun. His neighbour Seongwoo asks why his fox ears are drooping and Minhyun shoots back to put his nosiness away. So Minhyun has a boss who hates him and a man sulking at him for the second time that day, the first being when he mistakenly called him Hong.

So Minhyun is rightfully exhausted, and looking forward to the take-out turning in the microwave. Dongho had specially brought it home from Minhyun’s favourite restaurant, as compensation for ‘forgetting’ to do the dishes. He spaces out more with every turn of his container, and barely registers as Jonghyun speed walks into the room and stands next to him by the coffee machine, clearly refusing to acknowledge Minhyun’s presence. Unable to immediately face the other, whether it’s out of panic, lack of words, or something else entirely, he takes out his food and sets it to the side, turning away to rummage awkwardly in the cutlery drawer. The next few instances happen a bit too fast for him to process as he hears something crash to the ground, whips around, and comes face to face with the his favourite short ribs marring the pristine white tiles. The image is so devastatingly symbolic that Minhyun is left blinking dumbly at the floor and missing the way Jonghyun’s face flashes with shock, shame, guilt, and panic.

“Um…” Minhyun almost gives himself whiplash jerking his head up as Jonghyun utters the single syllable. With a perfect schooled image of nonchalance, what else did Minhyun expect, Jonghyun says “you can just eat from our cafeteria.”

Minhyun prides himself on his peace-loving non-confrontational conflict-avoidant existence, he really does. But the mess on the floor (not to mention the messes that are his emotions, his work situation, and his relationship with his boss… but Minhyun has always tended to avoid elephants in the room) taunts him. He steps forward and crowds Jonghyun against the counter, both hands gripping the edges to prevent his boss from slipping away.

“You did that on purpose” Minhyun growls, not sure if the white he’s seeing is blind rage or the radiance of Jonghyun’s soft-looking skin up close. Minhyun is momentarily distracted by the mole wedged in the crease of Jonghyun’s eyelids when he blinks owlishly up at him, caught in a moment of surprise and vulnerability. The little feature is so endearing that Minhyun’s anger has all but vanished as the proximity drags on, suspended in time longer that what would be deemed necessary between two fighting colleagues. Seeming to realize this at the same time Minhyun does, Jonghyun suddenly averts his eyes and clears his throat, leaving Minhyun to snap out of his hypnosis and back away.

Minhyun is scrambling to pull out a coherent sentence that would simultaneously allow him to brush off the charged moment between him and his boss and prevent him from getting fired on his first day. Except he knew better than anyone that such a feat of language simply does not exist. It seems he’s worried for nothing though, as Jonghyun steels his expression and seems to come to his own decision, shoving past Minhyun out of the room leaving a cloud of tension in his wake.

-

“So when are you going to start training the new manager,” Minki grouses, plopping himself on top of Jonghyun’s desk, while the man in question is valiantly trying to occupy himself with reviewing the financing terms on upcoming contracts. He groans, even at his utmost concentration the words are swimming across his eyes and he’s read the last page five times.

Jonghyun _knows_ , that he needs to talk to Minhyun, that the company can’t keep paying the new manager good money without anything to show for it just because Jonghyun can’t hold a conversation with the other man. After the time in café when he ordered his first vanilla latte, fate seems to have a cruel plan for him to embarrass himself in front of the other for the rest of his days. Jonghyun has no idea how to even look at Minhyun at this point, after being so focused on his need for coffee he completely missed that there was another person in the room, and then knocking over said person’s lunch in a burst of clumsiness that tends to rear its unwelcome head in the most inopportune moments. Hell, he even downed his first vanilla latte in his life, since somehow the sweet concoction and lactose was still easier to swallow than his own pride. 

As if messing up more in the last 24 hours than the past year wasn’t bad enough, Minhyun had crowded close enough into his space that Jonghyun was a little transfixed counting the eyelashes casting wispy shadows on the taller’s chiseled cheekbones. Close enough that Jonghyun had let his instinct for self-preservation slip between his fingers, let someone else peer over the iron wall barring his weaknesses from his rational mind, let intrigue for the unknown break down his carefully built poker face. He hates it, how Minhyun is always shoving him a little bit off balance.

“Tomorrow,” he responds decisively, literally putting his foot down. “I just have to find his Adonis heel.”

Minki rolls his eyes “That’s Achilles, you idiot.”

-

Jonghyun walks into his office tossing a potato between his hands and is greeted by incessant buzzing as message after message floods in from the company Kakaotalk, also known as the holy grail of gossip. Jonghyun humours it because by understanding the intricate network of people and relationships, he can quietly ensure that no one gets hurt and conflicts don’t get out of hand. Bemusedly wondering who the victim is this time, he chuckles at the endless thread of tearful emojis and keyboard smashing to get to the source. When he does, his blood runs cold. He holds up the phone through trembling fingers, blinking in disbelief at a familiar long lithe body wrapped around one of the girls from software.

“Hwang Minhyun”, Jonghyun whispers.

The position between the couple is emanating warmth in a way that makes Jonghyun’s whole body run cold and heat up at the same time. The way Minhyun’s body is curved in to fit her, his arms shielding away all of the terrible things in the world. The picture is blurry to see their expressions, or maybe Jonghyun’s too delirious to pay any real attention.

It’s at this moment that Minhyun chooses to walk into the office, setting a mug down on Jonghyun’s desk before squaring his shoulders and turning around to wish Jonghyun a tentative good morning. The entire situation is so ironic that Jonghyun has to bite back a humourless laugh. He gains a sliver of satisfaction watching Minhyun visibly shrink backwards when all he offers back is a practiced icy stare.

“Um…” Minhyun stammers, the practiced speech he recited to Dongho over and over last night sucked away by the void of emotion on Jonghyun’s face. He feels a painful tug in his chest, poignantly reminded of the revulsion his boss seems to direct to him alone. “I was hoping we could go over what my role is today?”

“Hwang Minhyun”

The way Jonghyun says his name, the first time he’s done so, sends a thrill down his spine. The way Jonghyun pushes away from his stronghold and takes slow, deliberate steps towards him, so different from the first time now that Jonghyun is staring piercingly into his eyes, leaves him unconsciously holding his breath.

They’re face to face now, or as much so as Jonghyun’s much smaller stature allows.

“Just because you’re new doesn’t mean I’ll let you off seducing people in the company. How dare you tarnish the image of my department.”

“What are you talking about,” Minhyun whispers, heart sinking in despair at how much Jonghyun must hate him to be pelting him with false accusations.

Jonghyun holds up the phone in his hand, a blurry image of Minhyun and the girl he crashed into yesterday displayed on the screen. Minhyun is suddenly hit with such a strong wave of desperation to defend his innocence his vision swims around him.

“That’s not what it looks like.”

Jonghyun’s face distorts into a cruel sneer that doesn’t suit his soft features. “That’s what they all say.”

The mixture of pain and adrenaline is overwhelming, ringing in Minhyun’s ears and propelling him to grab Jonghyun’s shoulders desperately, eyes pleading to not do this.

‘Listen, Kim Jonghyun, I don’t know what problem you have with me to be questioning my workplace principles on my second day. If I did something wrong the first time at the café, I’m really sorry for trying to offer you that scone. You probably think it was a mistake to hire me but give me just one chance to prove myself. I really want to show you that I can do everything you ask, but you’re not giving me a chance…” Minhyun trails off, the adrenaline he felt before fades to dejection, settling like a pit at the bottom of his stomach. He’s definitely lost his job now.

Jonghyun is trying to catch the tails of the words leaving Minhyun’s mouth, but the warning bells of his rational mind fighting the pounding of his heart in his ears drown out everything else. He stumbles backwards, pushing himself off balance and closing his eyes to prepare for the impact of the ground. It never comes. Two arms wrap themselves around his waist, and his eyes shoot open to meet a pair of fox-like concerned ones. Jonghyun wonders why it still feels like he’s falling.

“Let go.” He whispers strainingly, and Minhyun immediately pulls him upright before he removes the large hands gripping Jonghyun like an iron brand. Jonghyun turns around and scrambles blindly for his coffee, closing his fingers around a thermos and his potato before he leaves.

Jonghyun finds himself back at the 60th floor staircase, fingers gripping his potato as his knuckles go white. He squeezes his eyes to shake off the past that holds him in place like a pair of handcuffs, ones that he’s grown to live with because the prospect of being freed only to have history repeat itself is the scarier demon.

It's different this time, Jonghyun tries to tell himself, no one can touch me or tear me to shreds.

He hates how the opponent is better than him at his own game. He hates how he scrambles for words around the other. He hates how much weakness he’s showing, to the point where he needs to be caught in the act. But most of all he hates how he’s accustomed himself to the cold, told himself that he’s fine the way things are, but the alluring warmth that embodies who Minhyun is refuses to leave his mind.  


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of spectrums of emotion and minor reconciliations

Minhyun is fuming when he slams out of Jonghyun’s office, vision blurring with rage as he stumbles over to the staff room, body slamming so hard against the counter that he pitches over the sink, knuckles draining of blood as his fingers dig dents into the granite counter top. The flurry of anger morphs into deep disappointment as he pushes down a dry sob threatening to burst through.

Minki walks into the room and hits the buttons of the coffee machine beside him with practiced ease as Minhyun tries to rearrange his visible emotions back into some semblance of normalcy.

“Coffee?” Minki inquires non-chalantly, eyes trained on the coffee filtering through. If he notices anything off, he graciously doesn’t mention it.

“I don’t drink coffee”

Minki looks up and quirks an eyebrow familiarly.

“That’s interesting for a barista to say. You’re a special one, Hwang Minhyun.”

“Clearly your boss doesn’t seem to think so. He would rather look at a potato than at me.”

Minki rolls his eyes subtlety, somehow making it look both elegant and exasperated. He looks up to smile sweetly at Minhyun, and as much as Minhyun felt bitter toward the assistant, he knows that getting the boss’ favour doesn’t mean that the man’s done anything wrong.

“Jonghyun is from Gangwondo,” Minki starts fondly, “he keeps potatoes around because they remind him of home. He came to Seoul armed with ambition and fought tooth and nail to get to where he is now.” Here he looks up to smile at Minhyun again, “I know he can seem like an asshole, but Jonghyun isn’t really like that. The thorny path he’s walked has just moulded him to put up a front to conceal his loneliness.”

Despite his previous frustrations, Minhyun’s unnecessarily soft heart goes out to the stone-faced boss whose eyes have always seemed a little bit sad.

“Jonghyun doesn’t really hate you, you know. I think he’s more confused with himself”

“Does he usually take confusion out on other people?” Minhyun feels the hurt burn in a concoction mixed with curiosity in his throat.

“No, he folds them up within himself until his entire being is creased with suffering and isolation, and as hard as I try to there’s no one he really allows to push through the layers he’s buried his old self under. But Minhyun-ah” Minki addresses him familiarly for the first time and Minhyun notices that he doesn’t feel uncomfortable with it “all of his carefully built defense mechanisms tell him to push you away but he keeps gravitating towards you. That’s why he reacts so meanly. I think you’re going to be more special than you think”

“You guys aren’t… you know” Minhyun gestures helplessly, unconsciously holding his breath for the answer, and mutters a silent prayer that Minki is intuitive when he doubles over in laughter. “Oh hell no! Jonghyun? That freight train of emotional constipation? I already deal with enough as his assistant.”

The gears in Minhyun’s head turn like a clock confused in which direction it’s supposed to move. Before he can sort through the cryptic messaging and implications thrown his way, Minki saunters off with a wink and a knowing smile.

Walking over to his desk a little dazed, Minhyun picks up a fresh vanilla latte sitting there without a second thought.  He flips open the lid and sips so absently that he misses the carefully crafted onibugi sitting on the foam, erasing the evidence of a silent apology.

\--

If anyone walked by the VP Sales office right now, they would see an executive typing away at his computer, the picture of pristine, calm collectivism that is expected from an executive at one of the top software solution companies in South Korea. What they wouldn’t see is the burning shame and blind misunderstanding that resulted in irrationally accusing his new employee (one that seems to trigger all of said irrational decisions, but Jonghyun isn’t one to place blame on others for no reason).

Minki had come back earlier from lunch, garbling about the newest gossip throughout the departments. Usually Jonghyun tunes out whatever newest scandal the other is going on about, Minki has an affinity to tells stories so butchered and rearranged for dramatic effect that two people heading out from work together sounds like the company is about to be upended from its roots. Today though, he listens in rapt attention as his assistant wails despairingly at how Hwang Minhyun is capturing the hearts of all the girls in the company with how he caught Raina in his arms, “like a prince out of our childhood fantasies” he had imitated, obnoxiously. Jonghyun isn’t entirely sure what the problem is considering that Minki doesn’t even like girls, but any attempt at rebuttal on Jonghyun’s side is futile anyway. Raina fell, Minhyun caught her, a bunch of theatrical fangirls blew it up. Hadn’t he been in the same position just yesterday out of his own clumsiness? Trying to stave off his blush and keep his head from spinning at the recollection, he wonders how he, Kim Jonghyun, known throughout the company and the entire business sphere for his relentless logic and analytical abilities, failed to recognize this alternative conclusion?

At this point Minki had stopped in his tracks and stared at Jonghyun as if he had grown another head.

“What, do I have something on my face?”

The resulting screech and accusing finger in his face was not exactly what Jonghyun was hoping to hear for an answer.

“You have foam on your lips. Are you drinking a latte? Mr. I-cannot-tolerate-a-single-drop-of-milk-or-sugar-in-my-double-shot Kim?”

“There was a buy-one-get-one deal at the café.”

Here came a noise akin to a _loud_ dying whale and Jonghyun felt an impending headache wiggle itself into his head.

“You’re telling me that you bought a ten-thousand dollar espresso machine for our office just to go downstairs and get a drink that you hate in a buy-one-get-one-free deal that doesn’t even save you money and just gets you _two_ drinks that you hate? Where did the other one go anyway?”

Jonghyun who had been rubbing away at the pain in his temples shot open his eyes, realizing that this conversation had to end now before Minki’s expert probing led to him revealing actions he doesn’t want to acknowledge.

“We have a meeting with W1 Enterprises tomorrow, it’s a huge contract, get back to work and make sure that the notes are impeccable.”

“Oh, I’m not going to be at work tomorrow. I’ve asked Minhyun to take my place instead.”

Jonghyun felt like he was dying. In this moment (not when Minki had left him at the bar with a sleazy old man to go home with some American transfer, not when he had gotten Jonghyun piss drunk just to get blackmail that he holds against his boss to this day, but this moment) Jonghyun really thinks that Minki is the spawn of the devil.

“Minki,” he warns, trying to keep his tone even “he’s new, we can’t put him in front of clients on his first week.”

“Oh give the guy more credit. I was by his desk and asked him what he was up to. He said he was bored and tried modelling some simple price structures. Some simple price structures my butt! He had a multiple worksheet optimization modelling 95% of the market price tolerance, Jonghyun, even we have never thought of that. Besides, you’re Kim Jonghyun, you’ve handled worse than having a full day to coach a promising newbie for a sales meeting.”

Jonghyun was a bit speechless at that, he had thought that Minhyun was taking his sweet time inputting data files. A reminder of a desperate, broken expression distracts him. Minhyun who had probably come to this company hoping to make an impact and instead got decimated by a boss who couldn’t hold in his impulses.

“Give me just one chance to prove myself” he had said.

 

And as much as Jonghyun’s defense mechanism was to stay away from uncertainty and danger, he couldn’t ignore how unjust he’s treated the other man. Besides, Jonghyun would never come to terms with it, but the last thing he wanted was for Minhyun to leave for real.

With an audible sigh, Jonghyun nods faintly.

“Call him down to our office, I need to make sure he doesn’t screw us up for tomorrow”

Minki smiles triumphantly to himself.

\--

Minhyun walks towards his boss’s office feeling everything like he is entering a lion’s den to be devoured. He doesn’t know what to expect, whether he’ll have to hear another round of hurtful words, or whether his boss has decided that he isn’t the right choice for the team after all. At least Minki will be there, Minhyun has come to trust the flamboyant assistant.

So of course he barely catches himself from stumbling backwards when the door opens and the face staring up at him is not that of the assistant but the man of his frustrations himself. Two of them stare at each other from opposite sides of an invisible barrier, Minhyun holding his breath in shock as Jonghyun searches his face for a certain reaction. He seems nervous to find what he was looking for and quickly steps backwards to let Minhyun in, misunderstandings piled so high neither of them know how to move forward.

Jonghyun wishes that he could revert to what he habitually does when he’s nervous or uncomfortable, the cold efficient business professionalism that protects him against mocking laughter and pointing fingers. But there are words that need to be said, words that the other deserves to hear because Jonghyun has been everything a supportive boss shouldn’t be. .

“I’m sorry”

“What?” Minhyun’s head snaps up in shock, obviously not expecting those simple words to be coming out of this meeting. The taller man tries to meet his eyes, but Jonghyun averts them as he tries to keep the shame and embarrassment from creeping up his neck and turning him into a tomato. He hates tomatoes.

“I’m sorry for misunderstanding you and jumping to conclusions. It was unfair and unprofessional, and I won’t let it happen again.”

Jonghyun doesn’t get to see how Minhyun’s entire expression softens, how the tension bleeds out of his employee’s frame and leaves behind the steady beating of a heart that gives too easily. He doesn’t see the way Minhyun fights the inexplicable urge to fold Jonghyun into his arms and run a thumb over his reddened cheeks, telling him that he’s forgiven and wiping the uncertainty and loss off of Jonghyun’s face.  Doesn’t see how Minhyun can’t stop the smile from blooming across his face, because it’s the first piece of kindness he's received from Jonghyun, and he feels like he can get addicted to the timbre of it, high off of the elation of hope and possibilities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this has taken me so long, school has been particularly gruesome. I pretty much have the story arch figured out but writing it is another story.   
> If you say that each of the characters are whipped for each other at this point they will deny it vehemently!!!  
> Anyway please let me know what you think in the comments & come shout at me at twobugis~


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of philosophy and learning from mistakes

Jonghyun’s fingers are drumming against the desk, on pace with the pounding in his head. Not because he has to close one of the largest deals of the quarter, and definitely not because he has to close this largest deal of the quarter in front of an employee that he can’t seem to keep his cool around. No, it’s just because he hasn’t had his daily concoction of coffee yet this morning, that’s all.

These kinds of business meetings are all the same: he sits next to the pompous CEOs at the head of the table, and rifles through their concerns while pretending like he wants nothing more than to give their self-important opinions the time of day. The addition of another human being, even one that he doesn’t have the best track record around, should not make a difference. He lets these thoughts circle through his head as he stands in front of the mirror fastening his tie.

_This is just another business meeting. Hwang Minhyun does not matter. Why can’t I tie this tie. You’re Kim Jonghyun who closes more deals than all your competition combined. Why is there a knot in my damn tie, how am I supposed to do this when I can’t even handle my own tie._

It’s needless to say that Jonghyun’s mind is in a ferocious mess when he enters the boardroom, tie giving away nothing as he fixed it (goddamn finally) impeccably in place. 

As Jonghyun launches into the business pitch, he feels the dissatisfied glances that the chief executive gives his entourage, the blatant pursing of the lips and unconvinced furrow of the brows. If it were anyone else they’d have broken into a cold sweat at the tense silence in the room, but Jonghyun doesn’t do that. Jonghyun has kept his cool in worse situations. He sees out of the corner of his eye, however, Minhyun observing the clients and breaking into a cold sweat, tense silence in the room augmenting as the minutes go on. Jonghyun thinks quickly, the words coming out of his mouth are mechanical as he tries to run through all of the possible problems in his mind.  

“Vice president Kim, are you aware of the theory behind an encyclopedia wand,” the executive interrupts. Jonghyun’s whirring mind stutters to a halt, and he has to remind himself to also stop his mouth that is has been speaking on autopilot. He lingers between telling the truth in shame or faking it until he most likely won’t make it.

“I don’t believe I’m familiar with the concept, sir” He replies, biting his tongue in annoyance at the way the CEO rolls his eyes.

“It’s rather unfortunate that I’m wasting time explaining theoretical concepts,” he starts, a smug expression contradicting his words, obviously satisfied with his moment of superiority, “The encyclopedia wand is the idea that an encyclopedia could fit on the length of a toothpick, or this gentleman’s head,” here he waves a hand at Minhyun who had been observing quietly, and the broach of a sensitive topic leads Minhyun to pout in distaste, “or this room. What I mean is, the data storage solution I need is not a matter of size as it states in your proposal, but the precision and depth of encryption that it brings.”

If the CEO wanted to confuse the entire room as an intimidation tactic then he certainly has done his job. Jonghyun can’t for the life of him figure out if the other party wants a lower price, a brand new product after weeks of development and demos, or is just playing an elaborate hidden camera prank. For the first time in his humble career, he stands shell-shocked at how fast the meeting changed winds. Before he can piece together a rational response that wouldn’t offend his haughty client, a voice rings out from the end of the table.

“Excuse me for interrupting sir, I was part of the testing team for your product yesterday and it has three layers deeper of encryption built in than normal banking services. If you give us another week, we can without a doubt create the depth that you need to meet your specifications.” Minhyun’s tone is completely professional, devoid of the burning fury he feels towards the man’s demeaning tone and mention of his head size. Jonghyun bewilderedly wonders if he was the only one in the room who was confused in the first place.

The man gives Minhyun a slow once over as if sizing up his importance and competence before seems to come to a conclusion. Jonghyun, who’s just about drowning in his own incompetence at this point, bemoans if being rivetingly attractive adds brownie points to the perception of competence. It’s not even something that he can improve on.

Minhyun, failing to sense his boss’s distress, holds back a snort, knowing for a fact that the CEO before him can know everything about encryption but nothing about the depth of human interaction and relationships.

“Alright, I’ll give you three days,” the executive turns back to Jonghyun. “Your associate just saved your face today, at least someone in this office seems to have their head in the right space.” With that he stalks out without a backwards glance, his own associates gathering their papers and scurrying out behind.  

Minhyun rolls his eyes at the associates gathering their papers and scurrying out after their boss, knowing full well that most of them had no idea what went down at the meeting. He eyes the door as it closes behind them with a thump, feeling a strong need to conquer these customers and get them right back onto the deal. He turns back to Jonghyun, ready to launch into a brainstorming session about how they’re going to test run the product in the next three days in time for the next meeting. But he turns to find Jonghyun’s retreating back yanking open the other door. By reflex, Minhyun jumps out of his chair, gathers his papers and goes scurrying after his boss.

He bursts out of the conference room to find Jonghyun gone, only hint of his presence the faint clicking of a door down the hall.  Minhyun catapults himself towards said door and finds himself stumbling into the staircase, head turning frantically in case he loses his boss again. But he’s there, with hands clutching the railing so hard that Minhyun can see the bloodlessness from his spot a floor above. He freezes for seconds that feels like hours, eyes trained on the hunched shoulders, heart clenching at how a man who usually fills up a room can suddenly look so frail.  

“Please leave, please.”

Minhyun has to strain his ears to hear the plea in the other’s voice, the vulnerability making him wonder if he’s toeing on something much deeper than what went down at that meeting. And with every second that passes, Minhyun feels a burning compulsion to not leave. He takes one step, slowly, and then another, carefully, ensuring that if Jonghyun really wanted to leave, he could.

Usually, when you hold your hand out to someone, they take it. Especially if that someone is drowning in their own abyss. Usually self-preservation means holding onto any line that is cast towards them, even if that line were to catch a snare and do even more damage. Minhyun has since realized that he can’t expect the usual from Kim Jonghyun. As Minhyun outstretches his hands to close the last bit of distance, taking a leap of faith in hopes of pulling those bent shoulders upright again, in a surprising display of strength Jonghyun grabs Minhyun’s hand in mid-air and glowers at him.

“What do you think you’re doing” he shoots out venomously, breathing uneven and gaze agonized.

“Jonghyun…”

“Don’t say my name like that”

“What happened back there is not your fault. The guy had no idea what he was talking about.” Minhyun laments how there are not enough ways in the dictionary of human interaction to tell someone else that it’s ok, everything will be ok.

“I still let it get the best of me.”

“That could’ve happened to anyone.”

“Don’t act like you know anything, I’ve worked on this for months and still…”

Minhyun chooses this moment to slap two hands on Jonghyun’s shoulders, the sound vibrating through the empty stairwell as Jonghyun freezes in shock.

“We have three days and another chance Jonghyun. Stop dwelling on the past and let’s devise a plan to move forward. I’m here, please let me help.”

He searches Jonghyun’s eyes for a reaction, the open shock on his face a stark contrast from the usual controlled facade. In the myriad of emotions reflected in those profound eyes, Minhyun searches for affirmation, for trust. He’s searching so desperately that he misses how warm the skin under his hands are through a thin dress shirt, how Jonghyun’s face is quickly turning from ghostly white to a flushed pink at their proximity.

It isn’t until Jonghyun averts his gaze that Minhyun quickly steps back, not entirely sure where to look, and catches through the corner of his eye an imperceptible nod. The tiny action seems to break a dam as Minhyun floods with relief, reaches out again this time with more confidence, contemplating threading his fingers through Jonghyun’s but settling for a light grasp on the wrist instead, and pulls them back towards Jonghyun’s office. He sits Jonghyun down in his seat and pulls up another chair so that they’re sitting side by side. Once they start flipping through the notes that Minhyun meticulously made and organized, Jonghyun clicks right into his element. Efficient and intelligent, Jonghyun fires out solutions like a motion picture set into action, and Minhyun breathlessly witnesses why he leads the entire department.

“What if we hosted the server locally instead of centrally?” Minhyun interrupts, brain taking in too much stimuli to remember to filter his words. His eyes widen in horror at how tactless he was in disagreeing with his boss, whose face is drawing together in thought. Of course, in times like this when he really should just shut up and apologize, he decides instead to cement himself deeper into his self-created crater.

“The client is worried about security right? That might not just mean from outside the system but internally” his voice gets quieter and quieter until in eventually trails off. Someone in the back of his mind he notes that his university professor would’ve scolded him profusely for the lack of confidence, but there weren’t ever moments Minhyun felt like he was self-destructing back then.

After a few beats of the longest silence Minhyun has ever had to endure, the cogs in Jonghyun’s mind seem to fall into place. He looks up at Minhyun, crinkles his eyes and smiles.

“That’s a great idea, Minhyun”

Minhyun almost falls out of his chair in shock, neglecting to analyze whether it is from a smile that rivals the sun directed his way, or from the fact that his idea actually went through. Armed with new found optimism in their teamwork, they spend hours bouncing ideas off of each other, like puzzle pieces forming into a greater picture.

When they finally look around from their own world, everyone has left. Within the hollow silence Minhyun wants to ask if he can’t walk Jonghyun home, or maybe grab a midnight snack. But he recalls how Jonghyun’s legs had brushed against his, before stiffening as if realizing how close they’d gotten and incrementally pulling away. He wonders how to overcome the suffocating rejection if Jonghyun says no, how he’d find the courage to move forward again if Jonghyun retreats two steps back and builds up his fortress again.

So Minhyun chooses instead to remain silent, succumbing to the silence infused with his unspoken wishes.

\--

Over the next few days they’ve reached a mutual understanding, though maybe it’s weak protests and exasperated resignment on Jonghyun’s end when Minhyun parades  in with a steaming vanilla latte and exchanges it for a pile of files off of the mountain that looks like it’s about to collapse on Jonghyun at all times. Jonghyun had previously felt like an unknown and dangerous sea, but Minhyun is slowly figuring out how to navigate the waves. He’s realized that the reason why Jonghyun always has such a load on his shoulders is because he refuses to burden anyone else with it, and Minhyun bypasses that with the earnestness of a slaving intern ready to please. What Minhyun doesn’t realize is that when Jonghyun smiles at him hesitantly from underneath his fringe, and he almost drops his papers from the sparkle of it. When Jonghyun shyly thanks Minhyun for the latte with foam sticking to his lips and Minhyun needs to grip the desk to stop his hand from reaching out. When he walks in and Jonghyun has his brows furrowed among his mountain of papers and Minhyun bursts into an obnoxious serenade just to watch Jonghyun jump in his seat and send papers flying to his endless amusement, Minhyun doesn’t realize that he’s balancing alone on a precarious edge, and the threat is no longer being sent away but falling too deep off the other end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! –ducks at the flying tomatoes- yes I am very sorry it has been 200 years, I am wallowing in my own shame. Tbh this would've been delayed way more if it weren't for Caillen slipping into my DMs with nuest office memes daily ([ go read her amazing fics ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/2hyunlove/pseuds/2hyunlove)) and all of your lovely past comments (please leave more if you enjoyed this~)  
> For those who don’t understand the encyclopedia wand, it’s from Haruki Murakami’s book Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I am trash for Murakami’s works. It will appear again later on in the fic :) also I hope the POV change wasn’t too confusing?? Please give feedback :D  
> Anyway I think I’ve found some of my inspiration back so hopefully the next update comes sooner. In the mean time come yell at me at [twobugis](www.twitter.com/twobugis) and I just re-opened my [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/gracetwobugis)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of unwelcome crowds and pleasant surprises

It’s when Jonghyun and Minhyun are heatedly debating whether to have pork bone soup or soufflé pancakes for dinner than Minki comes sauntering in with The I-Have-A-New-Idea Face that Jonghyun dreads. Minki’s New Ideas are never good news in Jonghyun’s books.

“We’re throwing a party tomorrow” he declares, ignoring how his boss and the first person his boss is spending more time with than himself in the history of Nu’est Enterprises jump apart awkwardly.

“No we’re not” Jonghyun states, resolutely, because he likes to believe that he still has a say in these one-sided decisions.

“Well, the invites have already gone out to the entire company and a couple of your business partners have shifted around their schedules to make it, but I mean the final call is your’s. Since you’re the boss and all,” Minki smiles nonchalantly. Jonghyun wants to smack the smug grin off of Minki’s face but resorts to sulking in defeat instead, knowing that questioning anything is pointless at this point.

Minki, satisfied, turns to leave but, as if it just occurred to him that he had interrupted a conversation, turns back and stares judgingly at Minhyun. “Oh yeah and Hwang Minhyun, I don’t care how much of a pre-schooler’s sweet tooth you have, soufflé pancakes are not suitable for dinner. And here I thought Jonghyun was the one in the relationship that had unhealthy tendencies and needed to be mothered the hell out of.”

Minhyun sputters indignantly at the blatant attack on his food preferences, his sweet tooth hasn’t killed him yet _thank you very much_ , and doesn’t notice how Jonghyun colours at the way Minki shoots him a knowing look at the mention of a relationship. Screw Minki and his presumptuous ~~accurate~~ perception.

\--

Jonghyun doesn’t see any of Minhyun the next day after sending him a Kakao message saying that he had to practice his speech for the banquet and couldn’t work on the deal. He wishes that he hadn’t said anything at all, because when he lifts his head up to ask for a second opinion and finds the seat across from him empty, his mind draws a blank and a seeping dread, the kind that is hard to shake off once it settles into your bones, manifests itself in an overflowing bin of crumpled papers. He knows that he’s making someone else’s presence a habit, and he knows all too well that a habit is unforgiving once it has to be broken. It’s too bad, then, that someone else’s presence can be so easy that you momentarily forget about the scars they leave behind once they’re gone.    

The next time he does see Minhyun, it’s at the party which he’d much rather not be at, where he almost gets trampled by a group of bypassing women and proceeds to dance around trying to avoid tripping on their flowing gowns. He glares at them distastefully as he tries to smooth down his suit and look the part of a put-together business person who wasn’t struggling to put together a coherent speech that morning. The banquet was in full swing, and since Jonghyun arrived he greeted various business partners with a wide range of enthusiasm from grateful warmth to forceful smiles, pretending all the time that his eyes weren’t searching the crowd for a taller man with fox-like eyes. Pretending that he wasn’t hoping that those eyes would find his first. Of course, nothing was planning on going his way that day since his eyes trailing after the hoard of women lead to none other than Hwang Minhyun at the centre of all of them.

Jonghyun tends to conveniently forget that his employee is the prime target of female gossip in the company. His slightly disgruntled features morph into a full-on scowl as he watches the female employees basically claw each other out to take his employee’s arm. Resisting the urge to storm over and push them away, Jonghyun instead snatches Minki’s glass of wine from beside him and takes a large swig. When he passes back the empty glass Minki’s eyes are as wide as saucers, usually his secretary is the one who gets pushed all of the drinks (he’s equally as flamboyant when sober as when drunk anyway) so Jonghyun can stay in control. Minhyun’s eyes are crinkling, and Jonghyun watches him open his mouth in a hearty laugh that he’s too far away to hear but echoes in his head anyway.

\--

Kim Jonghyun is not in a good mood.

Minhyun sees this every time he peeks over at Jonghyun, concerned at the dark aura surrounding his boss, barely responsive to the one-sided conversations a few female employees are trying very hard to have with him. He likes to think that the reason he keeps stealing glances at his boss is out of polite concern, and not because Jonghyun's white suit looks dashing against his pale skin and jet black hair swept softly over his eyes, drawing in Minhyun’s gaze as soon as he steps into the room. Now that Jonghyun is more physically and emotionally distanced from him than he’s been the whole week, Minhyun’s concern is overshadowed by doubt on where the two of them stand, especially after Jonghyun didn’t reply to his hwaiting bibimbap Kakao sticker that morning.

Just because Kim Jonghyun marginally tolerates working with you does not mean that Kim Jonghyun likes your company outside of the office, he reminds himself firmly.

His self-deprecating pep talk is interrupted by a thumping on the microphone demanding attention. He looks to find Choi Minki standing on the raised platform at the front of the room. Was Jonghyun not able to come up with his lines in time? Minhyun wonders worriedly.

“I’d first off like to thank everyone here for gathering on such short notice, as many of you know the idea of this party came up yesterday.” Minhyun’s head whips to Jonghyun at the secretary’s words, did he know that it was so spontaneous? Jonghyun’s suppressed look of horror gives him the answer, and he wonders when he’s learned to read all of Jonghyun’s micro-expressions as if they were written across his face.

“—Seoul Fashion Week!”

The crowd erupts in applause and Minhyun was so busy examining Jonghyun’s face in detail that he had completely missed the rest of Minki’s announcement. He turns to one of the ladies beside him and leaned in “what did he just say?” The girl looks back at him with eager to please eyes at the first words the handsome sales manager has directed at her “Minki closed a massive deal with supplying all of the back-end data infrastructure for Seoul Fashion Week! Our entire department has been working on sales development in retail for so long and he goes ahead and sweeps up the most influential client in the industry. No wonder he’s the assistant of our ruthless VP Sales, the two of them make the real sales dynamic duo.”

Minhyun feels his insides drop as he looks back at the stage to see Jonghyun smiling at Minki brilliantly and thinks for the millionth time how good the two would look together. Remarkably competent, visually compatible, and reliant on one-another, Minhyun wonders where he, an outsider, even fits in this already perfect picture. While Minki can be found over his boss’s shoulders at all times, Jonghyun hasn’t approached or looked Minhyun’s way even once.

It’s time for Jonghyun to make his speech, and Minhyun knows this isn’t the one that he rehearsed because he thanks Minki with a hand around his shoulder and asks all of W Incorporated to learn from the example, not to be afraid to take risks and aim high. Minki is swelling with pride and Minhyun picks up a glass from a waiter passing by and downs it all by the time Jonghyun finishes.

Minhyun can’t count how many glasses he’s had as he watches man after man approach Jonghyun in a toast of congratulations at the huge deal. In fact, he’s staring at the bottom of the nth empty glass when he looks up and startles at Jonghyun standing right in front of him, clearly also drunk by the way he’s beaming, face flushed, standing closer than a Jonghyun who has full control over his motor functions would. Jonghyun laughs heartily, has he ever seen his boss laugh so freely before? Probably not, considering that he’s mesmerized by the sound, arm reaching out unconsciously to steady the inebriated man.

“C-can you believe that the whole time we thought Minki was slacking off on his job, he was in discussions with _Seoul Fashion Week_?”, here Jonghyun hiccups cutely, “to think I’d have a day where I’d feel bad for the amount of times I’ve thought about firing him in one day.” Minhyun looks down at him, unbeknownst to Jonghyun his eyes are softer than he’s looked at anyone else in the room that night combined.

“You’re drunk Jonghyun,” Minhyun is taken aback by how _fond_ he sounds, “let’s get you some water”. He takes Jonghyun’s wrist gently and guides him towards the exit, and if he turned back at that moment he would see Jonghyun stare intensely at where they made contact, using the remainder of his conscious mind not to pull out of Minhyun's grip and lace his fingers through the taller’s long slender ones instead. Jonghyun wants to tell him that he’s not drunk, he never got drunk at company events, he just drank a little more than usual, because that was the only way he’d stop holding back from admitting to himself who he wanted to be beside.

If anyone ventured out for a smoke break at that moment, they would see a tall man force feeding someone smaller water, two silhouettes in the pale glow of a humid summer night’s moon. If they had stayed for longer, they would have seen the taller wrap his arms around the smaller one’s waist, leaning down to whisper into his ear. What they said would’ve been unknown to a bystander, but with the way the raven-haired one glides his hands up slowly to rest around the taller’s neck, and with the way they sway harmoniously to the live concerto from the banquet, said outsider might’ve made a judgement. A couple? A developing attraction?  Or two colleagues who had too much to drink? The bystander wouldn’t know that the pair themselves were just as unsure of the answer.

The air between them is heavy with silence. Neither of them would have to speak above a whisper for the other to hear, but both of them grapple for a single word to say. “Minki says he wants to go to a karaoke bar later for the after party”, Minhyun chokes out. It’s are a futile attempt to diffuse the tension, so thick that Jonghyun has no idea where he’d end up if he took a daring step forward.

“I can’t sing, if I sing I’ll cry” Jonghyun pouts, effectively grounding them again to some semblance of normality. Minhyun chuckles.

\--

Jonghyun ends up at karaoke anyway, thanks to the fact that poor Minhyun’s efforts to get Jonghyun home and in bed were powerless to Minki’s ways.

He can’t bring himself to mind though, not even when Minki harasses him about refusing to sing a single note. Not when Minhyun sings Crush’s Beautiful with a hand placed comfortingly on his leg the whole time. Minhyun is facing the screen, clearly not having memorized all of the lyrics. This gives Jonghyun unlimited reign to stare at the other’s profile. He must be more intoxicated than he originally thought, because the thought of Minhyun turning around and seeing his heart resting on his sleeve doesn’t seem so bad.

_It’s a beautiful life, I’ll always protect you. It’s a beautiful life, lean on me. Beautiful love, I can share your tears and your smiles. It’s a beautiful life._

Jonghyun muddledly thinks that he can get used to this, no matter what kind of scar breaking another habit could leave behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably no one is going to leave any comments because they hate me for taking 4.5 months to write this :( hopefully you still enjoy it though!!

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment with what you think so far :)  
> And come scream at me at [twobugis](www.twitter.com/twobugis)


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